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Definitely not. These are the voices and opinions that drive the Korean entertainment industry and its media. Netizens play a bigger role in the decisions that are made in this industry than probably any other industry in the world and have an extreme amount of control in the decision making processes of companies and their artists.Netizens have a cause and effect relationship with the media. They cause it, the media effects it: it being the industry.

Are these voices reasonable? Most often not. But the Koreans that don't care or aren't commenting aren't the ones impacting the industry, so while it's true that these comments don't necessarily represent the majority opinion of all of Korea, that doesn't mean they should be dismissed.

Companies will actually pay out people to write positive comments on articles about their stars to manufacture a "positive image"... They are often caught because they will just copy and paste the same positive replies onto articles from Naver, Nate, and Daum.

- Why are netizens so negative?Please keep in mind that this blog only focuses on negative content as that is what usually impacts the industry. There are just as much, if not more, articles that receive a positive response on any given day.

- Why are your netizen comments different from allkpop and other sources?

allkpop and other news sites/blogs/fanforums that translate directly from Korean news sources are fed a selection of made up netizen comments to include at the end of each article. They are a part of the PR package because netizen validation is just oh so important in Korean media.

The comments you see on this blog differ because they were made by real people unrelated to the artists and their companies.

- Why do you only source from Nate?

Nate has one of the biggest and fastest moving communities out of the top three portal sites because of their acquisition of Cyworld a few years ago (imagine Google acquiring and integrating Facebook into their platform).

People have often brought up that Naver and Daum have better communities made up of "real netizens" and not haters and trolls like Nate, which is what led me to begin sourcing from Naver as well. At the end of the day, there isn't much of a difference. The overall opinion/sentiment on scandals and other issues are the same across the board. I will probably not source from Daum because it's just overkill.

- What is the difference between Nate, Naver, and Daum?

Naver is most used for their blogs and KiN (similar feature to Yahoo! Answers) while Daum is most used for fancafes. Nate has Cyworld as well as several other social platforms like Pann that are all about community discussions.

- Why did you ignore my request?

I probably couldn't find articles with enough comments or best replies for them.

- Why did you ignore my request when it was in the rankings/had best replies?

The best replies sometimes go off topic, especially when journalists end up making a typo or some error in the article content. If that isn't the case, the best replies might have had too big of a difference in the votes that I didn't feel properly represented overall opinion (ie +400, -350). E-mail your requests or ask them without the anonymous feature to get a personal reply. I will always reply with a reason if I end up skipping a request.

- What is a positive dump and why aren't you doing it anymore?

I cover "positive" articles if they're beyond comments that are just "she's so pretty" or "he's so handsome".

- What are Pann and Telzone?

Korean journalists only source from two places: PRs sent to their inbox and netizen run community boards.

Pann and Telzone are both netizen run community boards (under Nate and Daum, respectively), Pann being the larger with hundreds of thousands of netizens online and engaged at every hour of the day.

Pann is basically just a huge forum divided into sections of popular interests like pets, work, school, age groups, new mothers, newlyweds, cooking, love, military, fashion and beauty, and of course K-Pop/entertainment and much, much more.

It's barely moderated so users are free to post anything for discussion and ask for advice. Because of such a large range of interests, Koreans from all walks of life are on the board, from teens to people in their 50s and older.

Telzone is focused solely on entertainment. Netizens can create any entertainment related topic of their choice and admins will go around and feature the hottest topics of the day on the front page.

- Are the controversies and rumors that come up in Pann or Telzone important?

Yes and no. K-Pop fandoms have a love/hate relationship with Pann because if your group ends up on there for something positive, the amount of exposure can potentially rival any expensive PR campaign.

To put things into perspective, each section of Pann has their own ranking so that users can easily look at the most viewed/commented/voted threads of the day/week/month.

There is also an overall ranking displayed at the side (static, users will see it no matter what page they're on) that ranks the most voted or discussed threads from the entire Pann community as a whole.

So imagine what happens when an uninformed netizen writes a malicious thread filled with rumors or lies. You can only hope and pray that it doesn't catch on and end up in the overall ranking because after that, you can pretty much kiss any chance of saving the group's image goodbye, especially with the witch hunt mentality that comes with it.

So going back to the part where I mentioned that journalists source from netizen run community boards? This is exactly what I mean. Once an issue becomes big enough on Pann or Telzone, journalists take it directly to the media, whether or not it's true. This is EXACTLY what happened with every single one of Block B's scandals.

If a group isn't under a company powerful enough to prevent it from happening, journalists will run the story because any drama is better than no drama, and hey, netizens are saying it's important so it must be important!

Think back to every scandal any idol has ever been in. Where did they start?

- What is media play?

There are a wide variety of opinions on what media play is and it ultimately comes down to what each individual feels is appropriate. In a larger sense, media play is a company seizing control of the media to sway something in their favor, whether that be public perception or sentiment or recognition, or to run a smear campaign against a rival.

The most direct form of it is companies buying out rankings to lodge articles about their artists to the top so that casual news readers will either look into them more or assume that they're popular enough with netizens to be ranked there. It's proven to work because if you do it enough times, overtime, netizens will buy into the hype and begin to associate the star with 'high ranking popularity'. A lot of idol careers are built off of this.

If you haven't noticed, a lot of what Korean journalists consider news worthy stories are manufactured hype, and that's because companies play into the power of netizens and use it to exert their control on the media.

Companies sending out PR for their artists is completely normal, expected, and even an absolute must. After all, the public needs to find out about a new music/movie/drama release, right? This is where the lines get blurred. Where do PRs about faked hype stand? I think I can safely say that netizens consider anything outside of the standard PRs announcing releases or comebacks to be media play.

After all, why would you send out a PR about a selca being the hottest topic of the week or how one of your idols comes from a wealthy family or even how your idol is 180 cm tall when none of these have anything to do with their musical careers or current projects if not to constantly bombard netizens with their names in the hope that they'll stay relevant? Again, it's up to you to decide.

- Why don't you translate articles in full?

I post under the assumption that allkpop or another source has already translated the topic. Usually, the articles are titled so that you know exactly what the article is about without the details. If additional explanation is necessary, I'll usually post a short summary blurb.

- Do Korean netizens monitor international comments as well?

They usually translate comments from allkpop to check the feedback of the international audience. There is a site Gasengi that is specifically dedicated to translating international responses.

- How many people run Netizen Buzz? Are you Korean? What can we call you?

I'm one person and am a Korean American female. You can call me NB. I have friends who are Korean translators in other fandoms and news sites who I work with to double check content as needed. - Can I repost or translate your posts in another language?

Sure, go ahead. Please remember to credit.

-------RULES

1. NO MORE GIFS. This will be temporary, but until further notice, gifs
in place of actual comments will not be allowed at all. Reaction gifs
don't add anything substantial to a discussion and many people have been
annoyed by discussions being dominated by back to back conversations of
gifs. You're intelligent, you can write out how you feel. I KNOW YOU
CAN. Fighting.

2. Stay on topic. No more requesting articles. No more talking about
so-and-so's music video release in an unrelated post. If you have
personal complaints about a specific article, e-mail me ---> (contact@netizenbuzz.net).

3. Keep discussions civil. Do not personally attack users for differing
opinions unless you are refuting them or have something to add. This
will be left to mod's discretion. JUST BE NICE.

- "I don't agree with your opinion and here's why..."OK

- "Listen up you piece of shit because I'm going to explain to your pea sized brain why your opinion is worthless..." NOT OK!!!!!!!

- "lol ur dumb"NOT OK!

Sometimes you need to just realize that it's better to agree to disagree
and move on than resorting to attacking each other and getting off
topic. Be sensible. Be reasonable!

4. Obviously no racist/sexist/homophobic/ableist/OFFENSIVE remarks. If your words offend someone, you are being offensive whether you think you're right or not.

5. Try to keep excessive swearing to a minimum. Please also keep conversations in English only.

6. If you see an obvious troll/spammer, don't engage with them. Just
wait for them to be deleted or moderated. Don't reply and talk back to
obvious baits. Replying to them just derails the thread.

7. Keep private conversations to a minimum/wrap it up quickly. I know it
gets inevitable and one topic leads to another but take it privately if
it's just the two of you discussing something off topic.

8. If you think a mod is being unfair/you were moderated unfairly,
e-mail me privately and we'll assess it from there. DO NOT call out mods
in the comments, it will be considered off topic. It is OKAY for a mod
to be a fan of a certain group. They are human beings with interests and
bias like everyone else. They are not robots who should be expected to
be completely devoid of emotions on every topic. However, it is NOT okay
if your opinion was moderated for reasons like blatant bias against you
or your favorite K-Pop group and fanwar/rivalry. Again, just contact
me. Don't whine in the comments about it.

9. Many of the topics discussed on this blog are sensitive issues for
many people. BE UNDERSTANDING. This is not the time to flex your e-peen.

10. If you have personal problems about me and the way I run this blog,
just e-mail me and I'll try to fix it for you. I will always take
constructive criticism and work with you on ways to improve this blog.

Regarding promoting other links, sites, blogs - absolutely feel free to,
as long as it adds to the discussion and is/or relevant to the topic.
Putting down my blog to promote another blog is not acceptable. I'm not
your bitch and I'm not going to tolerate it.

11. If you have suggestions or ideas for other rules, please e-mail me and we can talk about it.

12. Repeat offenders will be banned. Everyone makes mistakes, I
understand that. Minor mistakes will be deleted and given a pass on but
if mods notice that the same person is breaking the rules over and over,
you will just be banned.

13. If you feel you were modded unfairly in the past (ie banned), please e-mail me and we can make amends.

LASTLY, I ask for your understanding in that we will all need some time
to adjust to these rules and many things will be trial and error, but I
ultimately hope for an improvement in our comments as a community and
ask that you abide by these rules while we figure out what works and
what doesn't.

My intentions are purely to facilitate more civil and intelligent
discussions than to censor your thoughts and opinions. As always, please
e-mail me if you have advice, complaints, questions, rules to add,
etc... I will be stalking my e-mail like a hawk and try to respond to
everything to the best of my ability.

Also, please give our new mods time to adjust as these rules begin being enforced more heavily.

Thank you so much to my readers and I genuinely hope these changes will improve your time here in the blog!

--

NOTICE: I also have a new e-mail and will be
starting fresh! I will no longer be using netizenbuzz@gmail.com. Please
send all e-mails to contact@netizenbuzz.net.

Netizen Buzz

Disclaimer

Just a friendly reminder... Comments on this blog do not represent the majority opinion of Koreans and should not be taken as an example of Korean sentiment on any of the topics presented. They are just one facet, one view of the many different views that exist. Please read the FAQ for more info.

- Don't feed the trolls in the comments.- Please be respectful to one another.